A/N
Written for season 10, Round 6 of QLFC
Wigtown wanderers, chaser 2
Prompts: (dialogue) "You stab them with the pointy end.", (relationship type) Siblings, (Character) Fred Weasley.
Wicked Hexes for Wicked Wizards
It was an early morning in July. Ginny found it impossible to fall back asleep after another horrible nightmare about Tom Riddle and was therefore getting out of bed early. The stairs creaked underneath her bare feet, giving her a jump-scare when she took the first step. She breathed in the wonderful smell of bacon as she walked inside the kitchen.
Mrs Weasley turned around, waving and giving her a warm smile that instantly made her feel better.
"Good morning, Ginny," her mum greeted. "Did you sleep well?"
The warm feeling quickly vanished at the mention of her sleep.
"Not really," she answered, looking down at her feet. "The dreams, you know. I'm so afraid he will somehow find me and possess me again."
"Oh, dear. I can't express how much I wish there was some way I could help you," Mrs. Weasley said, giving her a hug.
Ginny hugged her back. They stood there for a while, embracing each other. Little did she know this was the comfort she had been searching for during her entire school year.
"There might be a way…" Ginny started. "Percy told me about something called Occlumency a few days ago. He said that it would be good for me to learn it."
She pulled back, looking her daughter in the eyes.
"It might be useful if he tries to possess you or invade your mind again. But I don't know how to do it, it's very difficult to master," Mrs Weasley said, giving her daughter a sympathetic look.
Ginny wiped her slightly teary eyes, thankful for her mum's comfort after a hard school year. Mrs Weasley stroked her cheek, thinking of something as she turned back to the stove.
"Oh no, I completely forgot the bacon!" she gasped. "Will you help me make new?"
Ginny nodded, looking at the burnt bacon. Soon enough they were working the burnt bacon off the bottom of the frying pan.
"Do you know anyone that could teach me Occlumency?" she asked her mum.
At that moment there were steps on the stairs followed by Percy and the twins entering the kitchen.
"I'll bet Dumbledore knows how to do it. It was him I had in mind when I suggested Occlumency," Percy told them.
When her mum had regained her control over the bacon, Ginny sat down at the table. Percy and the twins were arguing. From what she could hear, Fred and George had been experimenting with one of their prank supplies late at night. This kept their brother awake, stealing away from his "priceless resting hours" as he insisted on calling it, much to their amusement.
Eventually Mrs Weasley took her seat beside Percy. Ginny quickly loaded up some scrambled eggs on her plate, her stomach rumbling.
"Why are you two up this early anyway?" she asked her twin brothers, taking a bite of her breakfast.
Fred shared a look with his brother before leaning closer to her.
"Shh, little sis, we don't want to make mum suspicious," he whispered. "We have to test our new product outside and out of sight from the house. It will vanish within a few hours if we don't activate it."
Ginny flashed him a grin. She loved being included in their secret mischief and plans. Fred turned away from her, starting a conversation about some prank they pulled on Angelina Johnson in their first year. Her mum was discussing some boring Ministry-related thing with her extremely interested son.
She quickly tuned out both of the conversations and ate her breakfast in silence, lost in her own thoughts that may or may not have been accompanied by a certain raven-haired boy.
Fred and George hastily finished their breakfast and disappeared. Before she could follow them, the twins had managed to quickly sneak away from the house without her. She sighed, sneaking up the long stairs to their room in hopes of finding something entertaining.
Ginny silently closed the door in case someone in the family would travel the staircase and catch her. Her eyes immediately landed on the mess on their desk: Zonko products, candy, flour, paper towels stained with blood and countless odd stuff.
After she had snooped around their room for a while her gaze landed on a bright purple book with the title Wicked Hexes for Wicked Wizards by Samuel Journeux. She picked it up flipping through the pages before slipping it underneath her sweatshirt.
Ginny headed outside to read the hex-book hidden underneath a tree. Not that she liked to read, but for every dream she had, the gut feeling that said she needed to learn more defense grew stronger. If these wicked hexes weren't useful, it would still be a distraction from her messy thoughts.
On the first page, she read about the Bedazzling Hex which could temporarily disguise things and even make an Invisibility Cloak. But the magic in the cloak would of course wear off eventually.
Ginny got lost in the book with its wicked forms of revenge. Half an hour later she had learned about everything from how to give someone insect-like qualities for a short period of time to gluing someone's tongue to the top of their mouth.
A ringing noise made her look up from the book. Everything seemed fine, normal actually. A crow jumped away from her gaze before flying up into the blue sky. Ringing laughter sounded behind her.
"Did you see their face?" George said to his twin, both laughing hysterically.
"Who's face?" Ginny asked as she stood up from the ground. "I'll bet the loud noise was from you."
"Actually yes," Fred answered. "It's a Decoy Detonator. They run away making a loud noise when you drop them. A Muggle saw the creature and made a ridiculous face. Like this." He widened his eyes, mouth hanging open.
"No, like this," George persisted, mimicking the Muggle's funny expression.
"You did it the same way," she laughed.
They disagreed with her for a while before dropping the subject with a playful sigh.
"Hey, did you steal our secret book?" Fred wondered, giving her a suspicious look as he picked up the purple book.
"Maybe…" Ginny said, mischievously gazing up at the sky.
"Promise not to tell Mum about it. She would make one of us share a room with Percy if she found out we still have it," he said, giving George a slightly panicked look.
"Fine, on one condition." She leaned in to whisper in his ear. "If you'll teach me the Bat-Bogey Hex."
"Okay, this is going to be a shock for him."
Fred flipped to the page about the Bat-Bogey Hex, scanning through the instructions which she hadn't understood when reading them herself. A minute later he whispered the incantation in her ear.
"The movement looks like the wing of a bat. I can't show you right now." Fred said. "You better hurry up before he gets suspicious."
Ginny nodded.
"What are you two whispering about?" George asked, raising his left eyebrow.
"Nothing you have to worry about, little brother." Fred laughed.
"Hey, you're only three minutes older!" he protested.
With George focused on Fred, Ginny practiced the wand movement once. Then she did it again, this time saying the incantation.
"Volamucus!" she uttered, directing her wand towards George.
George opened his mouth wide, unable to speak as slimy green bats flew out of his nose. They continued their flight to the forest. Fred flashed her a wide grin.
"Wait–he can't talk?"
"Nope, now we won't have to deal with him for a good fifteen minutes," Fred answered, his eyes widening when he spotted something behind her.
Ginny turned around, someone.
"What did you do to him?" Mrs Weasley asked before turning to Fred. "That hex is childish and absolutely unnecessary for her to learn! Besides, we don't use any bad hexes under my roof."
"I told him to teach me," she said to her mum.
Mrs Weasley shook her head wildly. She opened her mouth to speak again, but closed it again when she spotted the book in Ginny's hands. Meanwhile Fred and George took their flight back into the forests, bats still coming out of his nose.
"Didn't I tell you to get rid of that stupid book ages ago?" she screamed, rolling her eyes when she noticed the twins' sudden absence. "Very well, it's not your fault that they kept it."
They walked inside for the sun was far too warm.
"I wrote a letter to Dumbledore to ask him if he could teach you Occlumency next year. If that's alright with you?" her mum said, searching for her approval.
"Yeah, that's what I want," Ginny nodded, grateful that she dropped the Bat-Bogey subject. "I want to learn how to duel, in case I meet him again."
"Well, that looks like a job for me." Molly laughed.
"What? In case you don't have the brave knight Harry Potter to save you?" Fred asked. entering the room followed by George who no longer was under the hex.
"I would rather be saved by a hairy bear," Ginny lied, a blush creeping upon her cheeks. "Besides, I could always stab them with the pointy end."
"You stab them with the pointy end? Of your wand?" he laughed.
"Maybe I'll have the sword of Gryffindor like Harry had," she paused, "you-know-where."
"I knew Harry cheated the basilisk in some way." George said.
He did, with skill.